Lyft Will Help You Get to the Polls This November

Rideshare company Lyft is committed to getting voters to the polls on Nov. 6 and will provide free and steeply discounted rides all day. Jeff Swensen/Stringer/Getty Images

Don't let a lack of transportation keep you from the voting booth this November. California-based rideshare company Lyft has partnered with several groups to offer half-price or even free rides to your local polling place on Nov. 6, 2018.

According to a blog post on Lyft's site, transportation issues kept more than 15 million registered voters from their polling places in 2016. To help remedy that situation, Lyft is offering 50 percent promo codes nationwide via partner groups like Vote.org, Nonprofit Vote and TurboVote. In underserved neighborhoods, Lyft rides will be free, thanks to partnerships with nonprofits like Vote Latino, local affiliates of the Urban League and the National Federation of the Blind.

So that's how you can get to your polling place. But what if you don't even know where your polling place is? Lyft has your back there, too. It's integrating polling locations into the Lyft app to help you get to the ballot box so you can make your voice heard. And if you're already a Lyft user, you'll start getting push notifications about voter registration deadlines, which are coming up fast.

But it's not just riders Lyft is helping; it's helping drivers, too. They'll be able to register to vote in their local Lyft offices, and Hub locations across the country will have voter registration handouts and voter information. Lyft is in all 50 states, and the company says that about 95 percent of the population will be able to take advantage of these voter promotions.

Midterm elections tend to have low turnout, so these efforts are important to increase the percentage of registered voters who turn in a ballot. Only about 80,000 votes in three states decided the 2016 elections, so every vote counts.

NOW THAT'S COOL

You don't have to drive for Lyft or even be a passenger to help increase voter turnout in the 2018 midterm elections. You can participate in National Voter Registration Day events on Sept. 25. Since the first event in 2012, volunteers and organizations have hoofed it to create awareness and get nonvoters registered. In 2016, 750,000 voters registered during the event.